I haven't - I've always associated it with far right religious types in backwoods USA bristling with assault weapons, private water supply, stacks of food in caves and plenty of daughters to continue the line.

But is there a case for preparing for the SHTF moment - civil unrest, breakdown in law and order or, as mildly seen in the bad winter weather a few months ago, overstretch of our fragile supply lines.

I not talking about the sensible stuff that most of us do all the time - having a bit of savings and enough food for a few days and a first aid kit - but the verging-on-paranoid storage of non-perishable foodstuffs, water, backup heating maybe a small generator and so on.

What are the circumstances under which this would be a sensible course of action and how would you recognise that those circumstances were approaching?

Should you just do it anyway - a stack of trays of tinned foods in the garage and some bottled water - enough to keep you going for a few weeks wouldn't cost much.

I have given that a little bit of thought - mainly concerning utility supplies. The problem with gas central and water heating is that you need both the gas and the electricity to work. A separate gas fire doesn't require electricity; portable electric radiators don't require gas, and a camping gas stove with a few cylinders delivers hot food and drinks whatever the situation. Drinking water is probably the hardest simply because we really need it and use so much of the stuff every day.

Yes - I've thought of heating and power. We used to have paraffin heaters and bottled gas room heaters - they still do in Spain. I wouldn't like to use one these days in the UK where the houses are hermetically sealed - big condensation problem apart from anything else although I suppose you would have to if all else failed.

What about reserves of food and the like?

The big Morrison's near us ran out of some basics for more than a week during the snow I that was the same with all the supermarkets in town.

If Kent and the Pas de Calais become lorry parks things could get much worse than that.

The Government's own commissioned reports said Scotland and Cornwall could run out of food within a coupe of days. Is this scenario possible - worth making contingencies for?

The "just in time" philosophy of shops and other businesses taking deliveries only as they need them is certainly vulnerable to any kind of disruption - particularly transport, especially across borders.

If it's just food supplies you are concerned about then yes, a cache of tinned and dried foods with distant "use by" dates seems like a good idea.